His Silicon Soul
| season = 1 | number = 43 | image = File:His Silicon Soul TC.jpg | imagewidth = 250 | airdate = November 20, 1992 | director = Boyd Kirkland | writer = Marty Isenberg Robert N. Skir | story = | teleplay = | music = Carl Johnson Harvey Cohen | previous1 = Joker's Wild | next1 = Off Balance | previous2 = The Demon's Quest Part II | next2 = Fire from Olympus }} His Silicon Soul is an episode of the first season of Batman: The Animated Series. It features the return H.A.R.D.A.C. since the episode Heart of Steel Part II and marks its last appearance on the series. "His Silicon Soul" was the 62nd produced episode and the 43rd episode aired. Synopsis When a Batman impersonator appears in Gotham City, the real Batman deduces that Karl Rossum is somehow involved and confronts the inventor. The other Batman, a duplicate, then shows up and a battle between the two takes place. After the duplicate Batman escapes, it begins its campaign to recreate H.A.R.D.A.C.'s goals of a robotic society. Plot A group of thieves breaks into a warehouse owned by Cybertron, hoping to find and sell the company's advanced technologies. When they come upon a crate, Batman suddenly bursts out and attacks them. During the fight, one of the thieves fires a gun at Batman, revealing, to everyone's shock, his body exposed with circuity. After the thieves are rounded up, the fake Batman is confused of what is happening and leaves for Wayne Manor moments before the police and the real Batman arrive. The fake Batman arrives at the manor and pleads a frightened Alfred for help. Alfred recognize the fake Batman as one of Karl Rossum's robot duplicants and flees to the Batcave, where he releases a knockout gas, but the duplicant Batman is immune and removes Alfred's filter mask, causing him to succumb to the gas. The duplicant, believing himself to be the real Bruce Wayne who is trapped inside a robot body, begins to search for Karl Rossum. In the meantime, the real Batman meets with Commissioner Gordon and learns that somehow, some criminals have been captured by someone, using his same m.o. This makes Batman suspicious and he immediately makes the connection to Rossum. Moments later, Batman meets Karl Rossum, who has retired to a farm attended by his robots, and discuss of a possible Batman duplicant created by Rossum's former supercomputer H.A.R.D.A.C. Rossum could only provide that the police had confiscated everything created by H.A.R.D.A.C. Just as Batman leaves, the duplicant Batman arrives, requesting Rossum's help. Rossum tries to reason with the duplicant that he isn't the real Batman. Once the duplicant realizes the truth, he demands to know H.A.R.D.A.C.'s location despite Rossum's insistence that the supercomputer was destroyed. The real Batman intervenes and battles his counterpart, causing heavy damages to Rossum's greenhouse. The duplicant manages to escape but not before saving Rossum from the collapsing greenhouse in the process. The duplicant travels to a police warehouse and finds a processor, which contains the remnant of H.A.R.D.A.C.'s consciousness, and inserts it inside his skull based on an implanted directive. The newly restored H.A.R.D.A.C. explains to the duplicant that it created a duplicant based on Bruce Wayne but was unable to activate it when the supercomputer was destroyed by Batman. The duplicant's memories was damaged and was taken into police custody. With the Batman duplicant under its control, H.A.R.D.A.C. continues its plan of replacing humanity with duplicants. Batman tracks the duplicant and fights it again, but he is overpowered and thrown into a river. The duplicant returns to the Batcave and installs H.A.R.D.A.C.'s processor into the Batcomputer, beginning a five-minute downloading process that will revive H.A.R.D.A.C. and granting it access to control over the world's computers and defense system, thus having the world under its mercy. Batman soon arrives and once again battle the duplicant while trying to convince his counterpart to stop the upload by pointing out the fact that he still has human senses and qualities like the real Batman when he saved Rossum and is unwilling to kill. The duplicant causes Batman to apparently fall to his death and he is horrified of what he had done. Coming to the realization that he had taken a man's life, the duplicant sacrifice itself by destroying the Batcomputer, ending H.A.R.D.A.C. for good. Batman is revealed to be alive and is helped by Alfred. The two watch over the duplicant's selfless action, wondering if maybe he did have a soul, despite being a machine. Cast Category:Season 1 Category:Episodes Category:Directed by Boyd Kirkland Category:Soundtrack by Harvey Cohen Category:Soundtrack by Carl Johnson Category:Animation by Dong Yang Animation Category:H.A.R.D.A.C. Episodes